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Thursday, July 03, 2008

Back From The Land Of Cheese

I got to spend last weekend in Wisconsin with my sister and her family, celebrating my niece Norah's birthday, my brother-in-law Kevin's birthday, my sister-in-law Jennifer's birthday, and most importantly, the baptism of Jessica & Kevin's twins, Joshua and Ashlyn. I flew up last Saturday morning, bright and early. Actually, it was so early that it wasn't even bright yet, but hey, it got me to Green Bay with most of the day left to play!

I have to tell you, if you must travel with a baby, the Snort is the one to take. He was an angel. He slept on all our flights, and entertained himself in the airport with:

A firewire cable, courtesy of his daddy! His favorite thing to do is get it behind his teeth and slide it back and forth. It's pretty funny.

We had a birthday party that was mostly for Norah, who turned 2, but there were presents and cake for Kevin and Jen, too. Norah liked the vacuum cleaner (with dust buster, even!) that we sent to her.

The Snort ate his first Dorito at the birthday party. I am not sure he liked it.

My mom and I did not let him eat a Dorito on purpose, by the way. We'd watched him try to grab one, and thought we'd moved far enough over that he couldn't reach the bowl. We were wrong.

The baptism was lovely. It was a special day! Kevin's parents, his brother, my parents, my grandmother, my brother and his family, and the Snort and I were all able to come. I didn't think much of it, because I wouldn't have missed it, but we had people come in from Florida, North Carolina, Illinois and Michigan - just goes to show that there are lots of people who love my sister and her beautiful family. Here is a picture of the whole gang:

Both twins were very good, and no one cried. I liked that the pastors carried the babies through the congregation so that everyone could see them. Here is Kevin with Joshy:

And here is Jessie with Ashlyn:

These pictures are not from the baptism. They were all dressed up so nicely - Kevin even wore a tie! These are candid, tired parent shots. Somehow I don't have any of the babies in their baptism finery.

Sunday afternoon we had a baptism party, which was lovely. Kevin's parents and brother left on Sunday. My parents stayed until Monday afternoon, so that Jessie and I could sneak out to a yarn shop. I got yarn for socks for me and a sweater for Schmooey, so I'm excited about that. The socks are going pretty well so far!

I did get the twins' afghans done, at 11pm the night before I left, of course. Here they are:

No close-up of the knitting, because it's not very pretty, but the afghans are soft and cuddly and will hopefully be useful. I know I love the afghan like these that our dear friend, Mary Robertson, made for the Snort. It's warm, yet it breathes, so it keeps him warm but he doesn't get too hot. And it's washable!

After everyone else left, I got to hang out with my wonderful sister and her four beautiful children (who, by the way, are all under the age of 4). She is amazing. I don't know how she maintains her sanity. I realized that it had been a long time since I'd been around toddler drama! I wouldn't have missed it, though. I hadn't seen Faithy and Norah since last summer, and it was my first time meeting the twins.

It was hard to come back to North Carolina, knowing that there would be no sister waiting for me, and also knowing that summer has hit full on here and it would be HOT. Actually, though, I was pleasantly surprised by the lack of humidity when I got home. Yesterday and today have been beautiful!